I am a former Pentecostal evangelist who renounced his beliefs for atheism in 1994. I have decided to write a blog where I share my thoughts and ideas about Christianity in general and the biblical God.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

The most intolerant religion ever!

Recently while posting comments in an atheist forum I was criticized by a believer for being intolerant for expressing my critiques of the bible. The post was about a cherry picking version of the Bible which I said should be popular with modern day believers. When I challenged him on his religions intolerance by citing scripture he then accused me of cherry picking!

The purpose of this post is to demonstrate through the scriptures that because Christianity is derived from Judaism and is a Jewish sect, it is in fact the most intolerant religion on the face of the earth. If we take the Bible at its word then originally salvation was exclusively for the Hebrews.

3Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, 4“As for me, this is my covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations. 5No longer will you be called Abram
; your name will be Abraham,
for I have made you a father of many nations. 6I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. 7I
will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and
you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be
your God and the God of your descendants after you. Genesis 17:3-7

He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." Matthew 15:24
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf
of God's truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be
confirmed Romans 15:8

Later on when God rescues the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt he establishes the so called ten commandments with Israel on Mount Sinai. This is where we see the first shades of intolerance towards other gods and religious practices.

3“You shall have no other gods before
me.

4“You
shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven
above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God...

Note that verse five is not complete because that part isn't relevant to the point of this post. The last part of verse five refers to the good Lords threats about the consequences of worshiping other gods. So far we have seen God establish a covenant with Abram/Abraham and then later after liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt we see him laying down the law.

The thirteenth chapter of Deuteronomy is the best example of religious intolerance in the entire bible. It focuses on the penalties for worshiping other gods. Can someone guess what that penalty is? Anyone? Anyone? Death! Here's an excerpt but by all means feel free to read it in its entirety it is short and is only eighteen verses long.

6If
your very own brother, or your son or daughter, or the wife you love,
or your closest friend secretly entices you, saying, “Let us go and
worship other gods” (gods that neither you nor your ancestors have
known, 7gods of the peoples around you, whether near or far, from one end of the land to the other), 8do not yield to them or listen to them. Show them no pity. Do not spare them or shield them. 9You must certainly put them to death. Deuteronomy 13:6-9

Christians might contend that "this was God under the law and that this is only found in the Old Testament. I have anticipated that lame move so here it is.

5Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 6:5

27He
answered, “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all
your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’
; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.
”

28“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” Luke 10:27-28

An expert in the law asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life and was at Jesus request he recited the law in verse 27. In verse 28 Jesus confirms that he has answered correctly. Jesus also endorsed the Old Testament laws in Matthew 5:17-18

17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished

Paul reminds believers about the truth of the gospel and the consequences of apostasy or teaching and or corrupting the gospel.

6I
am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you
to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which
is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into
confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But
even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than
the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! Galatians 1:6-9

Christianity is one of the most intolerant religions and I feel that I have demonstrated that thoroughly through this post. But I will not stop here. History itself is full of the cruelty and intolerance of Christianity. There is one bible prophecy that I think actually came true and continues to manifest itself even today.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34

The history of the Christian church is full of some of the most heinous crimes man could commit against their fellow man. Once Christians were backed by the Roman empire by a decree from Constantine they set out to cleanse the region of other competing belief systems and even murdered other Christian sects that did not accept their agreed upon creeds. These sects were labeled heretics and were subsequently persecuted and destroyed. The various inquisitions carried out by the church were really all about politics and world dominance.

After the inquisitions we hear of the war with Islam also known as the Crusades. Which in all reality was nothing more than an extension of the inquisitions. World dominance was the goal and Islam was and still is Christianity's most formidable opponent to date. Later you hear about the Salem witch hunts and even in our United States we still have some ancient laws in our books that reflected Christian beliefs about morals and society.

We already tried a theocracy and history has shown us that when religion is backed by the power of government and state it never works. I'm sure that if that ever happened today that Christians would outlaw everything that went against their ideas of morals and try to force feed their beliefs on everyone else. They would probably go as far as outlawing all other competing religions and try to unify the church by bringing together and or eliminating other sects that don't agree with the dominant branch of Christianity. Would they go as far as murder again? I can't really tell. But Christianity has demonstrated throughout history that it cant be trusted.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men." John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834–1902)

Note: All biblical citations are taken from The New International Version.

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

From 1990-1994 I was a Pentecostal evangelist from a very fundamentalist literalist church. At the time I believed I was saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost!
In those days I lived, ate, and slept the gospel. During the week I was in church on Tuesdays Thursdays, and Sunday's. On Saturday and Sunday I was usually on one of two of Brooklyn, NY street corners preaching the gospel with my partner in the ministry. My specialty was exorcisms aka as a deliverance ministry.
I believed I walked and talked with Jesus in those days every minute of every hour. I was as fanactically entrenched in my beliefs as any one could possibly be.
I have been an atheist since 1994 when I abandoned my church and former beliefs. But it was not easy and no one was able to get me to the realization that my beliefs were false and my experiences a delusion. It took my reading the Bible in its entirety to realize that the God of the Bible was not worthy of worship and was not love. I saw more morality in myself than I did in the biblical monster